DOMESDAY SURVEY 



Frenchman by battle, but would have to submit to ordeal against an 

 Englishman.' 



In one case at least a Norman was compelled to disgorge the fruit of his 

 greed. Over the holding of that priest at Hevingham who was singing his 

 three masses a week for his tenure in frankalmoin, there had been much 

 dispute. Leofstan ' held him ' in Edward's days, but he is afterwards found 

 in the grasping hands of Earl Ralf. Tarald, a man of William de Warenne, 

 seized him after Ralf's fall, and did so to the king's wrong [saisivit super 

 regem) ; and he 'held' him for three years. But the crown proved its right 

 against him {derationatus est super eum), and Tarald was called upon to give 

 security for damages. And so Godric, at the time of the survey, was 

 ' holding' the chanting priest for the crown.' 



The currency of the Norfolk Domesday calls for no special remark. 

 Examples of Blanch Farm are common, and are as usual all on the king's 

 lands. An isolated case of payment by weight occurs at Necton,' which, 

 being on Harold's lands is substantially in the same position. A certain 

 number of valuations are made in Ore, the ounce presumably of i6 pence, 

 and this may be another relic of Danish influence.* It will be noticed 

 that the complimentary payments, Gersuma and the like, were usually made 

 by tale. 



With regard to Domesday rents and ' valets ' we are not to suppose that 

 all the payments mentioned were made in actual money. There is, at all 

 events, good traditional evidence for the existence of a vast system of rents 

 payable in kind, each class of stock being rated at a fixed figure. Even in 

 Domesday itself we find traces of a commutation of food rents for money 

 rents, especially in the towns, e.g. Norwich ; and we may well believe that 

 the older system lasted longer in the country.' 



Our information as to the boroughs of Norfolk is somewhat full, 

 particularly in the case of Norwich, the one borough wholly within the 

 county.* The survey of the boroughs is placed between that of the king's 

 lands proper and those of the two great escheats. Of the three boroughs 

 named, Norwich presents a somewhat exceptional state of affairs since it is 

 divided into two distinct boroughs — the ancient English borough of Norwich, 

 and the new French borough founded by the king on the west side of his 

 new castle.^ We begin with a concise account of the old borough of 

 Norwich as it was in King Edward's time.* The town then contained 

 1,320 burgesses in all, and included two liberties belonging to Stigand and 

 to Harold, with 50 and 32 burgesses respectively. The jurisdiction and the 



' This passage is somewhat obscure. The Englishman ' offert judicium ' on behalf of his lord, and the whole 

 hundred contradicts him. Domesday then adds ' vel bello vel judic[i]o ; ex hoc dedit ille Anglicus vadem.' 

 This certainly looks as if the Englishman was ready to wage battle ; the gage {varies) is also mentioned on 

 f. 208, where the hundred contradicts Hermer's man and each side ' offert judicium.' The ordeal is also 

 mentioned on ff. 1721^, 193, 2751^ (J. H. R.). 



" f. 133. This paragraph is by Mr. Round. ' Ibid. f. 235. 



' Ibid. fF. 112, iizb, 128, 185^, 243, 253^, 258, 2773. In all these cases the payments is of two Ore, 

 which, as Mr. Round has pointed out, are equated in a Cambridgeshire case in l.C.C with 32 pence. He 

 has also found a similar equation in the Burton Abbey records. In all probability these were old customary 

 payments, and Mr. Round suggests that they were reckoned by (ak. 



' On this point see Dia/. de Seaec. (Clar. Press ed.), i, vii, and introd. pp. 3 1 seqq. ; and also Round, 

 Commune of London, 66. 



" Unless possibly Lynn, the description of which was omitted, wa" a borough. See p. 37. 



' Hudson, Rec. of City ofNorw. i, p. ix. " Dom. Bk. f. 116. 



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